July Gallery

Rutherford and Geiger in laboratory

Ernest Rutherford (left) & Hans Geiger in their laboratory at Manchester University in about 1908. They are seen with the instrumentation they used to detect & count alpha particles from a radio- active source. The experiment led to Rutherford identifying alpha particles as helium ions (they were later shown to be helium nuclei). Rutherford (1871-1937) elucidated the nature of radioactivity & the structure of the atom. Born in New Zealand, he worked in England & Canada & was the greatest experimental physicist of his day. Geiger (1882- 1945) was a German who is best known for his invention of the Geiger counter

© PROF. PETER FOWLER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Velvet worm

Epiperipatus broadwayi, a pripatus or velvet worm found exclusively on the Caribbean island of Tobago. Peripatuses are soft bodied and possess segmental nephridia like annelids but, like arthropods, they possess trachaeae, chitin in the integument and their jaws are modified limbs. Their stumpy limbs (lobopods) are unique in that their muscles work against a hydrostatic skeleton. Their diet consists of crickets, spiders, cockroaches and assorted microfauna

© DR MORLEY READ/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY